TCS Tiger's Claw
The Tiger's Claw (CV-07) was a . The first of the [[Flight IIA Bengal-class carriers]]. Tiger's Claw was 700 meters long, ten meters longer than subsequent Flight IIA ships. History Originally laid down as the TCS Tiger Claw, and commissioned as Tiger's Claw. She commonly called the former by her pilot's and crew.Star*Soldier, pg 2 It was launched in 2644 and on its shakedown cruise, it found itself in the path of a surprise Kilrathi invasion force. As a fresh ship, it carried a minimal spacecrew and an under-experienced command, but its unexpected presence surprised the Kilrathi. Along with clever tactics on the part of the command crew, and performance above and beyond the call of duty by the spacecrews, they routed the superior Kilrathi force. Shortly thereafter, the Claw was given permanent assignment in Vega Sector.Claw MarksStar*Soldier In 2649, the Confederation sent 60% of the Vega Sector Fleet to invade Kilrah. Having being surprised by unexpected Kilrathi warships, the Claw was sent from its station to the retreating Terran fleet's path and fought to delay the Kilrathi forces (Custer's Carnival) and allow the lightly arored Terran transports time to reach Terran space. During the conflict the Claw lost 3/4 of its engines and half of its crew, but managed to limp back to Terran space. The crew were honored as heroes with medals and 2 Gold Stars. The Claw then stayed 6 months in spacedock being repaired and refitted. Wing Commander Academy To replace these heavy losses, the 201st Plebe class of the Hilthros Space Naval Academy arrived aboard the refurbished Claw in order to replace the regular flight crew under Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn. The cadets, as 2nd Lieutenants of the Cadet Wing were to complete their course of instruction while performing routine patrols and flight training. One of the first missions of the Cadets was to scout the M4-21a System.The Most Delicate Instrument While exploring a binary star system, Grikaths piloted by delusional Kilrathi attacked the Claw, and it was saved thanks to the cadets. However they were also infected by the solar flare which caused delusions. They mutineered and conspired to destroy the Claw. Gwen Bowman had to destroy Allen Goetz's Broadsword to save the Claw.The Most Delicate Instrument The Claw sent cadets to Dioscuri II to investigate whether the Kilrathi had contaminated the native primitive Dioscurans. When the cadets were captured, Admiral Tolwyn dispatched Scimitars to their rescue.Lords of the Sky Again, when two cadets went missing, Sabres and a Longbow were sent to rescue them.Word of Honor On the discovery of a Kilrathi jump buoy near a pulsar, Tolwyn ordered its destruction and sent a recon team to scout the other side. Tolwyn ordered communication silence expecting the emergence of Kilrathi forces.Expendable Stationed near that pulsar's hypernode, and worried by the Kilrathi activity in this sector, Tolwyn asked the Fleet Command for reinforcements. After ambushing another Kilrathi recon force, reinforcements arrived, and . Admiral Rhea Bergstrom ordered Tolwyn to guard the node as a bait for an ambush at Seti Beta I of their combined forces of 140 fighters and then retreat to an unsecured sector. He objected to the foolishness of the plan, and Bergstrom, not trusting that Tolwyn would carry out her orders, ordered cadet Blair to spy him for her. Tolwyn thus changed his plans to carry out the ambush. The sudden retreat, while having the advantage, made Kilrathi commander Garahl nar Hhallas suspicious. Tolwyn soon found out that the Kilrathi had already prepared a trap on their own, and Bergstrom's task force was under attack. The Claw complied to her request and assisted the Trafalgar right before its destruction. Survivors joined the crew of the Claw. Seeing all the Kilrathi forces coming towards the Claw, Tolwyn ordered all head forward to the jump node under all the gunfire with all power diverted to forward shields. Maintaining collision course with Agon Ra Sivar, he played "chicken" with Thrakhath nar Kiranka, until the Prince acknowledged his bravery and moved his Dreadnought to evade the Claw. The carrier was scratched and made it to the node. The Claw received attack by Confederation fighters from the which was captured by Kilrathi. After the attack, Tolwyn recommended Bowman for saving the Claw.Walking Wounded When the Claw was escorting by three transports, they were destroyed by a Strakha prototype. While overseeing the repairs on .Invisible Enemy The Claw was escorting an and a en route to Oasis, when pilots salvaged a mysterious Sleep Ship from a Kilrathi Salvage Tug. The Ship was occupied by an alien in cryo-sleep, who intended to recover a powerful orb from the planet.Recreation Tolwyn set the plan for an ambush to surprise a Kilrathi Carrier that his pilots discovered. The Carrier was successfully destroyed, with the informatin that Prince Thrakhath will move to Dolos for the Sivar-Eshrad.Price of Victory After arriving to the Dolos System, the Claw destroyed the Kilrathi jump buoy and its guards so there was no warning on their arrival. Talking with Summer, Tolwyn was denied any reinforcements or assistance and was ordered to consider the Claw expendable on his objective to attack Thrakhath. He briefed the cadets about their fake objective to prepare fot a Confederation Marines invasion to liberate the Dolosians.Glory of Sivar During the process of the mission, Tolwyn informed the pilots that the Marines won't arrive and the Claw would engage the Kilrathi fleet alone, helped by the Dolosian uprising. Indeed his plan worked and having captured the cadets, Thrakhath expected a military invasion, unprepared for an assault against Agon Ra Sivar from space. The Kilrathi fleet left Dolos dishonoured. After the destruction of the Pegasus Station, the Kilrathi gained a direct route to Earth. Tolwyn, who was now an Admiral on the flagship , sent orders to Captain Jason Sansky as the Claw was the only ship in the Vega Sector. Christopher Blair (who had already served on the destroyer and the heavy cruiser delivered the orders to Sansky, that the Claw, with help from James Taggart, should go to the Charybdis and gather information about the Kilrathi strike force. Taggart, using his Pilgrim talents, approached a class-2 pulsar and engaged a level-five jump-point interphase to the Ulysses corridor. While scouting the Pegasus debris, pilots reveal their presence to a Kilrathi ConCom. A strike force was then formed to destroy the ConCom. Meanwhile 2 Destroyers and 1 Battleship launched 3 dozens of starfighters and torpedoes against the Claw which retaliated by destroying the destroyer. The battleship returned more torpedoes which severely damaged the Claw, but was soon destroyed by the pilots of the Baker Wing. The Claw hid inside an asteroid crater and launched a decoy to misguide the Kilrathi battle group. However a Destroyer metologically nuked every crater causing further damage. However Confederation Marines manage to board the approaching Kilrathi ConCom and steal fuel cells. Furthermore, they discovered the Pegasus Navcom AI with the Kilrathi coordinates through the Charybdis. That information helped the Concordia battle group to target the exact location the Kilrathi force entered the Sol Sector. During delivering that information, Jeannette Devereaux almost killed herself while protecting the Claw from a skipper missile. With Taggart's guidance, the Claw obliterated one more Cruiser and a Destroyer, before jumping to Sol Sector and join the Concordia. The Claw returned to the Vega Sector and the Enyo System and played an important part during the Vega Campaign.Wing Commander 1 After the extermination of the Terran Goddard Colony, the Claw was ordered by Admiral Deke Stover to leave for the Deneb Sector. Its pilots discovered and destroyed the . Finally, it became the Honor Guard for the Diplomatic Corps who came to the planet Firekka in 2655 when that planet and the native Firekkans joined the Terran Confederation. During his two years on Tiger's Claw, Blair advanced rapidly through the ranks from a fresh cadet to squadron commander; he was preparing to take over as Wing Commander when his career was sidetracked: While on approach to the Kilrathi starbase at K'tithrak Mang, the Claw was destroyed by a Kilrathi sneak attack by their newly developed cloak starfighters in the Enigma sector Crew The Claw's leadership at the end of the her life was as follows: *Commanding Officer: Captain Thorn, TCSN *Executive Officer: Commander Nelson, TCSN *Lefty :Maintenance *Commander, Air Group (88th Carrier Air Wing): Colonel Peter Halcyon, TCSF *Commander, Rapier II Group (Black Lions Squadron): Lt Col. Christopher Blair, TCSF Note-worthy pilots included: *Jeannette "Angel" Devereaux *Mariko "Spirit" Tanaka *Etienne "Doomsday" Montclair *[[Ralgha nar Hhallas|Ralgha "Hobbes" nar Hhallas]] *Zack "Jazz" Colson *James "Paladin" Taggart *Todd "Maniac" Marshall *Ian "Hunter" St. John *Joseph "Knight" Khumalo *Kien "Bossman" Chen *Michael "Iceman" Casey *Gwen "Archer" Bowman *S.E. Sarasin *Fatima Haroud *Rosie Forbes *Larry Dibbles *C.A. Skinner Squadrons *Killer Bees (Hornets) *Yellow Jacket (Hornets) *Blue Angels (Scimitars) *Blue Devils *Star Slayer (Raptors) *Black Lion (Rapiers) *Alpha Wing *Delta Wing *Gamma Wing *Baker Wing *88th Fighter Wing, First Squadron *Second Squadron *Third Squadron *Fourth Squadron *Fifth Squadron *Sixth Squadron *Seventh Squadron *Eight Squadron, 128 Fighter Wing *Pride *Cadet Squadron Captains *Geoffrey Tolwyn (2653, ) *Jason Sansky (2653?-2654.076 (March 17)) *Paul Gerald(2654.076-.163) *Thorn (2655.?-2656.?) *Peter Halcyon (2655.?) Trivia Name In the , the Tiger's Claw is designated CSS Tiger Claw (on uniform patches in the movie) and referred to as the TCS Tiger Claw (in subtitles and when discussed" This is Lieutenant Hunter of the T.C.S. Tiger Claw."). The term CSS has a more historical background because it was used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. It is referred to as the CS Tiger Claw in the Pilgrim Stars. Not much technical information is known of the Tiger Claw (beyond what is described in the novel). The film's ship design is much different from the game's ship design of the Tiger's Claw (although they are intended to be the same). In the novel the chapter computer readout headings list it as the United Confederation Carrier, Tiger Claw. Versions The TCS Tiger's Claw was also seen in the animated television series Wing Commander Academy. Although the ship looks similar to the game's version of the Tiger's Claw, there are minor differences, mainly the flight deck locations. This Tiger's Claw was equipped with thirty five dual-laser turrets, six triple-laser turrets and a single-laser turret cannon. The front of the ship looks more like a tapering blade rather than the rectangular as in the game. Command Commodore Geoffrey Tolwyn was in command of the Tiger's Claw in the television series. Jason Sansky was in charge of the ship for the first quarter of the year, Paul Gerald was in charge for roughly the second quarter of the year. Thorn was captain during the Goddard and Firrekan Campaigns according to Freedom Flight and Heart of the Tiger although likely intended to be the captain of the ship during the entire Vega Campaign as well (though he is not mentioned in the game). Due to a retcon with most of the Academy TV series being moved to 2654, and the placement of the film series, there are overlaps between when Sansky, Paul Gerald, Tolwyn and Thorn commanded the ship, as well as overlap between the Vega Campaign and the Pilgrim Uprising. It would seem Tolwyn must have come on board the Tiger's Claw for specific missions as 'acting captain'. External links *Wing Commander CIC: TCS Tiger's Claw *Wing Commander CIC: News Archive category:carriers Category:Terran Confederation capital ships